“I do.” He set the seat belt around her again and shut the door, returning to his seat immediately. “The good news, if you take it as such, is that you don’t really have a choice in what you do right now. So stop worrying about it.”
She frowned, irritation tightening her chest. “That was such an asshole statement. Just in case you were wondering.”
He pulled the still-running van out into the road again. “I wasn’t wondering.”
Life had just gotten way too confusing. Pippa set her feet on the dash and looked in the back of the van for the first time. Her heart stopped. “Is that blood?” Red was sprayed across the van wall and had pooled on the wooden floor, where a dirt-covered shovel lay.
“Yes, and before you freak out, it’s my blood. I cut my arm and spread it around.”
“Why?” she breathed.
Mal glanced at her and then focused back on the road. “To get Isaac to trust me, I convinced him I killed and buried a cult member. She’s in a safe house, by the way.”
Pippa’s senses overloaded. Pure and simple. She went silent, even inside her head, for a couple of moments. She wanted to be angry at Mal for lying to her, but he’d been right that she’d lied, too. “So you and me. It was all an undercover Op.” The words ripped into her heart.
“No, it wasn’t.” His jaw was so tight it had to hurt.
Right. “It was a coincidence you bought and moved into the house next to mine.” She let sarcasm fill her throat.
“No. That was by design,” he admitted. “Not mine—I had nothing to do with that. But the HDD pretty much manipulated me into buying my house. They made it the only acceptable available home submitted to me by my real estate agent.”
“Then you just decided to fall into their plan? By getting close to me? Gaining my trust? Sabotaging my car? Coincidences?” Her voice went shrill and she winced.
He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “No. Those were on purpose as well.”
Hurt flashed through her, pricking just beneath her skin. “Angus Force, your boss, coming by for tea and biscuits?”
Mal actually winced that time. “Part of the Op. He’s a profiler, and he wanted to get a read on you.”
Her head snapped up. Even her nostrils felt hot all of a sudden. “What was his take?”
“That you had a crappy childhood and might be innocent. Or maybe brainwashed. He needed more time to make a real determination.” Mal turned off the quiet road and headed toward town.
Well, at least she was finally getting the truth from Malcolm. One more question, and then she’d stop asking. This one was going to hurt, but she needed to hear him admit the truth. “Sleeping with me was part of the job, right? To get me to trust you.”
He sighed, his powerful chest moving. “Sleeping with you was definitely not part of my job. Hell. My job would be eons easier if I hadn’t slept with you. Everything I said to you, everything you felt ... that was real.”
The thrill that ran through her should be taken out, shaken, and shot. “If I could think of words I’d want you to say, exactly, you just said them,” she murmured.
He straightened just a little. “Well, good.”
“No. It just shows how good you are at your job,” she muttered. He had known exactly what to say to her from day one, now hadn’t he? “Are you a profiler, too?”
“I’m just a good undercover operative,” he said quietly.
Obviously. “You’re no doubt the best, Malcolm.” Bitterness burned her tongue. At that point, she had no choice but to help him so he could help Trixie. “What do you want to know?” she asked, her body beyond exhausted. “I’ll tell you anything.”
“What’s so special about tomorrow?” Mal asked.
Oh. The answer hurt deep inside her. “It’s my twenty-fifth birthday. The day the cleansing fire is supposed to occur.”
* * *
Malcolm went on full alert the second he pulled the van into the HDD parking lot.
Pippa looked around, her face scrunching up. “This is the HDD office?”
“No.” He twisted the key free. “We’re a satellite office. One that’s not exactly run by the books.”
